"Murder Committed by Inspector Kenmochi" is the ninth feature case in the New Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.
Three years after the mastermind behind a kidnapping and assault case of a high school girl was arrested and put into juvenile prison, he serves his sentence and then released to society. He and his two accomplices is soon targeted one by one by a "Death Executioner" who vows to exact the same torture the three inflicted on the school girl. However, all the evidence seem to point at Inspector Kenmochi as the culprit?!
The case also features two mini cases of Kindaichi when he's still in middle school: "A Diving Pool's Haunting Spirit" and "Camping Ground Mystery."
Tropes include:
- And the Adventure Continues: The case arc ends with Kenmochi, having been cleared of all suspicion, making his way to the crime scene of another murder, with Kindaichi following along.
- Asshole Victims:
- No one is particularly saddened by the victims' deaths. The high school girl's sister lamented that she couldn't see the first victim's face in agony moments before his death, the lawyer representing them for the kidnapping incident is more inconvenienced that he's suspected for the second murder, and the police officer who was the high school girl's fiance is not pleased "the worst of the bunch" survives the hanging.
- The second victim embodies this trope very much since moments before his "execution" he brags about receiving little consequence for committing a horrible crime because he was underage without an ounce of remorse.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The second victim tries to act like a jolly and approachable person and use his status of having studied in the U.S. so that he'll be popular with the ladies. It doesn't work for Hajime, who finds out shortly who he truly is with his connection with the police force. Sota Murakami, who is largely uninvolved in the case, also notes how the second victim has terrible reputation afterwards.
- Bound and Gagged: The first victim is discovered with duct tape over the mouth and wrapping around the body from the shoulders down tightly.
- Childhood Friends: This is one of the examples where while people involved have known each other since childhood, the relationship is toxic at best. The culprit and the rich victim in this case are childhood friends, but in a way that the rich victim takes advantage of the culprit's father's livelihood depending on his father's employment and makes the culprit his doormat as a result.
- Clear Their Name: In this case, the person Kindaichi is tasked with finding evidence to prove innocence for is Kenmochi, as the result of the culprit planting fake evidence to make him out to be the murderer.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The theme of the murders here is to make sure the victims feel what the kidnapped girl feel when she was locked up and tortured for a month by recreating a fatal version of the torture methods.
- Water torture: The first victim is tied into a bathtub and then slowly drowned by the water flowing from the faucet.
- Fire torture: The second victim is burned alive inside his car.
- Hanging torture: The third victim is hanged while his hands are cuffed.
- Drowning Pit: The bathtub where the first victim's corpse is found functions this way. While the bathtub itself is not closed off, the victim's body is Bound and Gagged tightly from shoulders down and stuck to the tub by duct tape, rendering him immobile and unable to escape, while the water level continually rises due to the plug blocking the water coming out of the faucet from flowing down the drain, so it works as the culprit intended in the end.
- Forced to Watch: When the rich victim is trapped inside the car that's ablaze as the result of Vehicular Sabotage, everyone who bears witness to his final moments can only watch helplessly due to how quickly the fire spreads throughout the entire exterior of the car, rendering any rescue attempt impossible.
- Frame-Up: Kenmochi is under suspicion for the murders in this case.
- Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: Before going to prison as The Scapegoat, the worst offense the culprit did was helping the actual kidnappers-turned-murderers to bury the dead body of the girl he sought, and that was only because his "friend" fed him a promise that turned out to be empty. After leaving prison, the culprit becomes a real murderer harboring seething hatred for those who wronged him (or so he has been (mis)led to believe, at least with regard to Kenmochi, as he's been manipulated into believing Kenmochi as a willing co-conspirator against him).
- New Transfer Student: One of the culprits behind the kidnapping incident transfers to Fudo High after he spends his time studying in U.S.
- The Scapegoat: The third victim is both on the sending and receiving end:
- On the receiving end, the "mastermind" behind the kidnapping incident turns out to be uninvolved in said case at all. He was there when the girl died after falling from the second story because he was looking for her, but the two kidnappers coax him into taking the fall with empty promises because the kidnapping happens in the culprit's spare apartment the kidnappers hijacked.
- On the sending end, because of the above incident and his resulting incarceration, and his attempts on pleading the truth afterwards end up falling on deaf ears due to unfortunate circumstances, he ultimately resolves to commit this series of murders culminating in his death - as well as framing Inspector Kenmochi every step of the way, thanks to the machinations of his crime sponsor - the Puppeteer from Hell himself, Yoichi Takato.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: When Kindaichi warns the second victim to be careful of the killer, he haughtily implies that everything is taken care of with his father's money."Don't worry. Dad's taken care of it. My bodyguard's doubled and I from now on am escorted in and out of school by my lawyer. Get it? I'm on a different class from those losers."
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the culprit realizes that he becomes a scapegoat for nothing because his childhood friend doesn't do anything to fulfill his promise, he decides to write a letter detailing the real events behind the kidnapping incident. However, after he learns the letter is basically useless, he decides "Screw it!" and declares to punish those involved in putting him in this predicament, including himself.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The lawyer presenting the three (back then) teenagers admits to destroying the culprit's testimony for the whole kidnapping incident because he's afraid his daughter's surgery, who needs the lawyer's employer's approval as the owner of the hospital his daughter was hospitalized as, would've been postponed if public found out about his employer's kid's true involvement with the case. His daughter got the surgery... and died from it, meaning he ultimately compromised his ethics as a lawyer All for Nothing.
- Slipping a Mickey: Kenmochi actually falls prey to this early in the case arc after consuming a beverage that turns out to have been spiked, though the drug in question is slow-acting enough to allow him to walk some distance before he becomes unconscious. The culprit, who prepared the laced drink in question, then seizes the opportunity to take Kenmochi and plant fake evidence accordingly with the intent of framing Kenmochi for the murders he himself would commit soon afterward.
- Spoiled Brat: A dark example. The second victim embodies this trope, feeling no remorse for the murder of a girl for whom he's responsible and fully expecting no consequences for his actions due to his wealthy father bailing him out time and again. It only serves to make him more of an Asshole Victim when the culprit in this murder case subjects him into a Cruel and Unusual Death.
- Sticky Situation: Played for Drama. The murderer has the first victim Bound and Gagged and his body forcibly stuck to the bathtub tightly from the shoulders down via duct tape, preventing the target from escaping out of the bathtub that, because of its faucet continually pumping water out and its plug stopping the water from draining out of the tub, becomes a Drowning Pit to its immobile victim.
- Taking You with Me: The culprit's intended plan against Kenmochi is to die in this murder case while making it appear as though Kenmochi had killed him.
- Teens Are Monsters: The second victim is a teenage Spoiled Brat who firmly believes that his rich father's wealth makes him untouchable due to his wealthy father having bailed him out time and again already in the past and gleefully gloats about it without any shred of regret to all the wrongdoing, including getting his childhood friend to act as The Scapegoat for the kidnapped girl's demise under an empty promise he made, that he has done, and beats up Hajime when the latter clashes with him over the deceased girl in question once too many, all of which make him an unmistakable Asshole Victim when the culprit subjects him to a Cruel and Unusual Death.
- Tempting Fate: The second murder victim believes himself untouchable because of his father's wealth, only to end up meeting his end in a Cruel and Unusual Death.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The lawyer presenting the three (back then) teenagers admits to destroying the culprit's testimony for the whole kidnapping incident because he's afraid his daughter's surgery, who needs the lawyer's employer's approval as the owner of the hospital his daughter was hospitalized as, would've been postponed if public found out about his employer's kid's true involvement with the case. He didn't realize just how bad the consequence goes three years later, given how this case turns out.
- Vehicular Sabotage: This is how the culprit ensures the death of the second victim, as the culprit tampers the car the target would commute in, waits for him to get inside it, and then detonates it remotely, causing the car itself to become ablaze instantly like a brazen bull torture device and trapping the guy inside to be doomed by immolation.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: The first victim has the fewest characterization, having little to no dialogue on the linear portion of the timeline and during flashback he more or less is the second victim's lackey.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Pulled twice by the culprit.
- The culprit shoots himself with Kenmochi's gun so that he'll be hospitalized with police supervision and thus have a perfect alibi for the first murder.
- He also deliberately hangs himself in locked room alongside Kenmochi so that Kenmochi will definitely be arrested regardless of whether the culprit survives or not.
